How cow urine became an unlikely ingredient in art and photography
The histories of Indian yellow and Bengal light reveal how colonial science and empire intersected with visual culture.
Vijay Singh Mohite: Inexorable Pulsations | Gallery Prologue | 8 Jan - 22 Feb
I was the curatorial advisor and catalogue writer for an exhibition of works by a late Gwalior-based abstract artist who, in his lifetime, only exhibited for a brief period in the 1970s.
From dust to digital: The quest to preserve India’s bazaar art
An ambitious project is digitising Priya Paul’s art collection, preserving vintage ads, cinema posters and more for future generations.
Cantus Firmus: Notes on Listening to Jangarh Singh Shyam
“The earth calls out, ‘Tell me Raja, why are you leaving me? You will never find such love in the city as you have found in your village!’”— Jangarh Singh Shyam
Geeta Kapur’s Speech Acts Reimagines Modernism for Our Times - The Wire
Attuned to India’s descent into Hindutva and neoliberalism since the 1980s, Kapur situates cultural production in an era of saffron capitalism
Why is ‘India’s Mona Lisa’ held behind bars?
The Gyaraspur ki apsara, one of the finest interpretations of the feminine form in Indian art, is locked away in a strongroom, a symbol of bureaucratic neglect.
In New Delhi, A Photographer Bends Facts to Get to the Truth
Introducing series: Vani Bhushan
Unbroken Cord
With her otherworldly textile art, Mrinalini Mukherjee united modernism and South Asian folk traditions. Kamayani Sharma explores the strands of Mukherjee’s career ahead
of an RA show on the artist and her circle.
of an RA show on the artist and her circle.
Vestibular Criticism: A Podcast
Podcast episode from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Polyglot Polyphony
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Alter Vox/ Vox Sui
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Ekphrasis, Orature and Translation
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Writing Across and Down : Transcribing and Describing
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Three Formats of Aural Writing
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Listening In and Finding Balance
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
A Counter-Aesthetic: The Art of Vikrant Bhise
A longform essay on the aesthetics and politics of artist Vikrant Bhise.
On Process at the Chennai Photo Biennale
Interviews with creators/ curators behind five projects at Chennai Photo Biennale 2024, focussing on the histories and fundamentals of the photographic process they engaged with.
H for Hate
A book review of 'H Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars' by Kunal Purohit.
Artists take the farmlands into the gallery
A new generation of artists is countering exploitative models of agriculture and creating works of art that embody care for the land and justice for the farmers.
Listening In
Essay accompanying Synaesthetic Notations, curated by Veeranganakumari Solanki at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2023.
Also accessible as Essay 17 here: https://serendipityarts.org/writing-initiative/projects-processes/projects-processes-2023/
Also accessible as Essay 17 here: https://serendipityarts.org/writing-initiative/projects-processes/projects-processes-2023/
How a British suffragist brought Ajanta’s ancient paintings into the light of modernity
Christiana Herringham led a historic project, involving some of India’s greatest artists, to copy Ajanta images so that they could be taken to the world.
A century on, Begum Rokeya’s feminist science fiction is still inspiring Indian artists
Rokeya’s ‘Sultana’s Dream’ critiques the present not only by evoking a seemingly impossible future but by revealing how the past persists and prevails.
A pioneer of performance art in India reflects on her decades-long journey
For years, Ratnabali Kant responded to political, economic and social transformations by synthesising performance and installation. Now she looks back.
A painting of Akbar in a drunken brawl is a history lesson in manliness and kingship
The miniature from ‘Akbarnama’ deviates from the text of the biography to present a badshah who has control over the body physic and politic.
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